Integrated Security Incident and Business Continuity Plan

1.0 Introduction and Strategic Mandate

This document establishes the formal, integrated framework for managing security incidents and ensuring business continuity. It is designed to provide a structured, repeatable, and auditable process for response and recovery, directly aligning with the organization’s overarching business objectives and defined risk appetite. This plan operationalizes the principles of Information Security Governance, codifying a top-down approach to managing security and risk in direct support of the organization’s strategic mission.

The core purpose of this plan is to provide a comprehensive, structured approach to identify, respond to, and recover from security incidents while ensuring that essential business functions can continue with minimal disruption. The scope encompasses all activities from initial incident detection through technical recovery and full business resumption. It integrates the tactical requirements of incident response with the strategic needs of disaster recovery and business continuity, ensuring a holistic approach to organizational resilience.

The primary goals of this integrated plan are to:

• Minimize Impact: Reduce the operational, financial, and reputational impact of security incidents on the organization’s business operations and assets.
• Ensure Effective Response: Provide a structured and effective response and recovery capability, ensuring that actions are predictable, efficient, and coordinated.
• Maintain Business Alignment: Ensure that all security strategies, including incident management and continuity, are aligned with and support the organization’s mission, goals, and business objectives.
• Meet Compliance Obligations: Ensure that all response and recovery activities are consistent with applicable legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements.

This plan is overseen by a formal governance structure, which is critical for ensuring its effectiveness and alignment with strategic directives.

2.0 Governance, Roles, and Responsibilities

A clearly defined governance structure with well-understood roles and responsibilities is the foundation of an effective response. In the high-stress context of a security incident, this clarity is paramount for efficient decision-making, effective coordination, and clear communication. This section outlines the governance bodies and key teams responsible for executing this plan.

2.1 Security Governance Oversight

Security Steering Committee This is a group of key stakeholders who provide strategic direction and oversight for all information security governance activities. During a significant incident, this committee provides executive-level guidance, approves major resource allocations, and reviews post-incident reporting and metrics (KPIs and KRIs) to ensure response efforts remain aligned with strategic business objectives and drive continuous improvement.

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) As the highest-ranking security executive, the CISO is responsible for the overall development and oversight of the information security program. The CISO has ultimate accountability for the execution of this plan, including the authority to declare a disaster and activate the appropriate response teams.

2.2 Incident Response and Continuity Teams

The following table outlines the core teams and their primary responsibilities within this integrated response framework.

Team/Role	Core Responsibilities
Security Operations Center (SOC)	First line of defense. Provides 24/7 real-time monitoring, threat detection using SIEM and IDS/IPS, and initial incident triage and escalation.
Incident Response Team (IRT)	The core tactical team activated to manage a confirmed security incident. Responsible for executing the IRP, including all phases from containment to recovery, with the goal of bringing the incident’s impact back within the organization’s defined Risk Tolerance.
Business Continuity Team (BCT)	Comprised of business unit leaders. Responsible for executing the BCP, coordinating manual workarounds, and ensuring continuity of critical business processes during a disruption.
Disaster Recovery Team (DRT)	A specialized technical team responsible for executing the DRP. Focuses on recovering and restoring IT infrastructure, systems, and operations at an alternate site following a declared disaster.

These teams are empowered to make critical, risk-based decisions that align with the foundational risk management principles outlined below.

3.0 Risk Management and Business Impact Foundation

An effective response plan is not one-size-fits-all; it is built upon a solid risk management foundation. This section outlines the methodologies used to prioritize critical assets, define recovery objectives, and guide decision-making, ensuring that all response and recovery efforts are proportional to the potential business impact.

3.1 Risk Management Framework

The organization’s approach to risk management is guided by established control frameworks such as NIST and ISO 27001. Our risk management framework is governed by a clear understanding of our Risk Appetite, defined as “the level of risk that the organization is willing to accept in pursuit of its objectives,” and our Risk Tolerance, which sets “the acceptable level of variation relative to the achievement of objectives.”

3.2 Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a critical activity used to “identify the impact of various disaster scenarios and to determine the most critical processes and systems in an organization.” The BIA is the primary input for establishing our recovery objectives, which are defined by two key metrics:

• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): “The maximum data loss that is acceptable during a disaster recovery.” This metric dictates the required frequency of backups and data replication.
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): “The maximum tolerable time period from an outage to service resumption.” This metric dictates the speed at which a system or process must be restored.

3.3 Risk Treatment Strategy

Based on the BIA and formal risk assessments, the organization will apply one of four primary risk treatment options to manage identified risks:

• Mitigate: “Implementing controls or making changes to reduce the impact or likelihood of the risk.” This is the most common strategy.
• Accept: “Accepting the potential risk and continuing with the activity,” typically when the cost of mitigation outweighs the potential impact.
• Transfer: “Shifting the risk to another party, often through insurance or outsourcing.”
• Avoid: “Eliminating aspects of operations that pose unacceptable risks.”

This risk-based foundation informs how we execute the operational plans detailed in the following sections.

4.0 Incident Response Plan (IRP)

The Incident Response Plan (IRP) provides the immediate, tactical steps for managing a security incident in real-time. Its primary purpose is to control the situation, limit damage, preserve critical evidence, and restore normal operations as quickly and safely as possible. A rapid, structured response is critical not only to mitigate technical damage but also to protect shareholder value, maintain customer trust, and meet regulatory obligations.

A Security Incident is defined as “an event where the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information (or an information system) has been or is in danger of being compromised.”

The IRP follows a structured, six-phase lifecycle to ensure a consistent and effective response:

1. Preparation This is the ongoing phase of readiness. It includes deploying and maintaining security tools, training the response teams, conducting drills, and regularly updating the IRP itself to reflect changes in the threat landscape and our environment.
2. Identification & Analysis This phase begins when a potential incident is detected through alerts from tools like a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) or Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), or through a user report. The SOC and IRT analyze available data to confirm whether a security incident has occurred and to determine its nature and scope.
3. Containment The immediate objective of this phase is to isolate the affected systems to prevent the incident from spreading and causing further damage. Containment strategies may include disconnecting a system from the network or disabling compromised user accounts.
4. Eradication Once the incident is contained, this phase focuses on removing the root cause. This involves eliminating malware, patching vulnerabilities, or addressing the misconfigurations that allowed the incident to occur.
5. Recovery This phase involves restoring the affected systems to normal business operation. This includes rebuilding systems from secure backups, validating their security, and monitoring them closely to ensure the threat has been fully removed.
6. Post-Incident Activities (Lessons Learned) Following every incident, the IRT conducts a post-mortem review. All events and actions are documented in a Security Incident Log. This analysis helps identify weaknesses in controls or response procedures and drives continuous improvement for the future.

If an incident is severe enough to overwhelm normal recovery capabilities, it may be escalated to a disaster, requiring the activation of the DRP and BCP.

5.0 Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

While the IRP manages the immediate incident, the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is invoked for significant events that cause a major disruption to IT infrastructure. The DRP provides a detailed, technical roadmap to recover and restore IT infrastructure and operations following a disaster.

5.1 Activation Criteria

The DRP is formally activated by the CISO or the Security Steering Committee when a security incident’s impact exceeds the pre-defined Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) for critical systems, or when primary IT facilities are rendered inoperable.

5.2 Recovery Procedures

The DRP follows a structured process to ensure an orderly and prioritized restoration of technology services:

1. Initial Damage Assessment The DRT conducts a rapid assessment to evaluate the full extent of the impact on IT systems, data, and physical infrastructure.
2. Recovery Site Activation If necessary, the DRT will activate the designated alternate recovery site to provide the infrastructure needed for restoration efforts.
3. System Restoration The DRT restores critical applications, servers, and data in a prioritized order determined by the Business Impact Analysis (BIA). The systems with the lowest RTOs and highest criticality are restored first.
4. Verification and Testing Before bringing any system back into production, the DRT thoroughly tests its functionality, data integrity, and security to ensure it is operating correctly and is not vulnerable to further compromise.
5. Return to Normal Operations Once the primary site is secured and fully functional, the DRT will manage the planned transition of operations from the recovery site back to the primary production environment.

The successful execution of the DRP is the technical prerequisite for the BCP, ensuring that when critical business functions are resumed, the underlying technology is stable, secure, and ready to support them.

6.0 Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

The Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is distinct from the DRP. While the DRP focuses on restoring technology, the BCP’s primary goal is to define the “methods that an organization will use to continue critical business operations after a disaster has occurred.”

6.1 Plan Activation

The BCP is activated by the Business Continuity Team in conjunction with the DRP when a security incident causes a significant disruption to critical business processes identified in the Business Impact Analysis.

6.2 Continuity Strategies

The BCP outlines several strategies to maintain operational resilience when IT systems are unavailable. Key components include:

• Team Relocation: Pre-defined plans for moving essential personnel to alternate work locations where they can safely resume their duties.
• Manual Workarounds: Documented procedures that allow staff to perform critical business processes without reliance on unavailable IT systems, ensuring that key services can still be delivered.
• Stakeholder Communication: A structured communication plan for keeping all stakeholders informed. This includes applying principles of Risk Communication to provide timely and transparent updates to employees, customers, vendors, and regulators regarding the incident and the status of operations.

These plans are living documents that must be validated and improved to remain effective.

7.0 Plan Testing, Maintenance, and Improvement

An untested plan provides a false sense of security and represents an unacceptable risk to the organization. To ensure this integrated framework remains effective and relevant, it must be continuously tested, maintained, and improved. This commitment is essential for adapting to an evolving organizational structure and a constantly changing threat landscape.

7.1 Testing and Exercises

The organization is committed to regularly testing the IRP, DRP, and BCP to validate their effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. A variety of testing methods will be used:

• Tabletop Exercises: Facilitated discussion-based sessions where response teams talk through a simulated incident scenario to validate the plan’s logic, roles, and decision-making processes.
• Walkthroughs: Step-by-step reviews of specific plan components or procedures, conducted by the relevant teams to ensure clarity and accuracy.
• Full-Scale Simulations: Comprehensive, hands-on tests that involve all response teams and may include the activation of failover systems to simulate a real-world disaster scenario.

7.2 Plan Maintenance and Audits

This plan and its supporting documents will be reviewed and updated at least annually, or immediately following any significant security incident, organizational change, or technology shift. Furthermore, the plan’s effectiveness, implementation, and alignment with business objectives will be periodically validated through both Internal and External Audits.

7.3 Metrics and Reporting

The effectiveness of our incident management program will be measured using a defined set of Security Metrics. These include:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): To measure how well response activities are achieving their objectives (e.g., mean-time-to-detect, mean-time-to-contain).
• Key Risk Indicators (KRIs): To measure the level of risk in a given process and provide early warnings of potential issues.

Post-incident reports, test results, and performance metrics will be formally presented to the Security Steering Committee to provide oversight, secure resources, and drive a culture of continuous improvement.